Designer Paul Ropp brings 'haute hippie' to Honolulu
By Paula Rath
Advertiser Staff Writer
When writer Jocelyn Fujii of Makiki goes to the airport to meet her friend of 30 years, Paul Ropp, she never knows what to expect. Once he Rollerbladed off the plane wearing voluminous, colorful tie-dyed pants. After a meditation retreat on Maui, he arrived with a full white beard, wearing loose pants made of sari fabric, a white Indian cotton tunic and a huge shawl. Another memorable outfit consisted of chartreuse pants with orange piping, with a 12-foot-long hot pink scarf trailing behind him.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
Ropp, is, after all, the brash Brooklynite his friend and former roommate, the late Paul Mitchell (yes, the one whose name appears on all those salon hair products) called "Apparition on Park Avenue" because he used to walk his black great Dane on that most upscale of avenues wearing white tails and top hat.
Natasha McKenzie models a Paul Ropp design at Baik Designs in Gentry Pacific Center. Ropp, who has been in the fashion business for 30 years, is scheduled to open a boutique at Ward Warehouse on Oct. 1.
Eccentric? Undeniably. Irreverent? Auwe! Eclectic? Indisputably. Passionate? Impossibly. Fashion-forward? He's off the charts. Constantly reinventing himself, Ropp is a character, with a capital "C."
Beginning Oct. 1, Ropp, in his present role as fashion designer, will bring his unusual style, and his complete line of fashions and accessories for men and women, to Ward Warehouse.
It's not his first foray into Honolulu retail. In 1980 he had a shop in Ala Moana Center on the mall level, where Chocolates for Breakfast used to be. It is remembered for colorful clothing, interesting textures and employees on roller skates. A "partnership breakdown," as Ropp describes it, shut the shop down, and he began traveling the world again. (I spotted his signature two-layer dressed and patchwork skirts in a boutique called Only Art in Ravenna, Italy, just the other day.)
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
Although he has been in the rag trade for 30 years, Ropp wasn't always a fashion designer. He made his first fortune in the 1960s when he invented and manufactured cigarette-rolling papers printed to look like a draft card (made out to Richard M. Spenderson, a takeoff on then-President Richard M. Nixon), a $100 bill and the American flag. That got him plenty of attention from the Secret Service and the FBI.
Paul Ropp may look like a hippie from the 1960s, but he's also a little bit Wall Street.
An inveterate world traveler, Ropp was in India in 1971, wondering what to do next, when he fell in love with the hand-loomed fabrics he found in villages in Bengal and elsewhere on the subcontinent.
His fabrics, 90 percent of which are natural fibers (wool, silk and cotton), are still hand-woven, embroidered and beaded in India, then sent to Bali for manufacturing.
Although Ropp looks like a 1960s-era hippie, with a ponytail pulled back from his balding pate, he's also a little bit Wall Street. In an effort to ensure the stability of Indian village textile industries, he helps the villagers secure loans from banks and the International Monetary Fund. "The people who make my fabrics are either young kids who will grow up and move away from the industry, or aging grandparents, so in 30 years there won't be any weavers. These designs will become museum pieces," Ropp said.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
Ropp's inspiration comes mainly from the streets: from New York City to village stoops in India and Bali. He looks for the "wow!" factor. Colors are vibrant and combinations are unexpected.
Nedra Chung of Manoa says Ropp's designs are "a magnet for the free spirit in each of us." Jeni Von Tempsky models this design.
"Fashion is dead," Ropp said. "I want to do something controversial and inspirational. We make things that incite reaction. That's how we've built our business — that and word of mouth."
Paul Ropp Designs has no sales representatives or showrooms.
The designs are complex and labor-intensive. Flounced skirts and men's western-style shirts are often pieced from strips of fabric and ribbons. Embroidery motifs are elegant and sophisticated, often inspired by motifs as diverse as Celtic manuscripts, Egyptian tomb carvings and Art Deco murals. Ropp's custom buttons are imprinted with Tibetan power signs. His color themes are derived from forests, water, fire and earth.
At a recent Honolulu trunk show, Ropp's designs were well received by fashionable island men and women who enjoy expressing themselves through their clothing. "They're exotic and definitely for someone who knows their own personal taste," artist Yvonne Cheng said. "It's a sophisticated hippie look. The fun thing for me is that you can combine (Ropp's designs) with other things to give them pizzazz."
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser
While trying on garment after garment, Nedra Chung of Manoa said: "My rap on Ropp is that it's a magnet for the free spirit in each of us. But it takes a lot of confidence to wear it, and I love that."
Ropp's men's western-style shirts are often pieced together from strips of fabric and ribbons.
The Ward store will be his 14th; the others are in Indonesia. His clothing is also sold in stores in New York City and at Harrod's in London.
Ropp said his designs are often the least expensive line in the most expensive stores. Prices range from $30 to $300 per piece.
As a child, Ropp had a vision of himself under a thunderous waterfall, swimming breaststroke up the falls — in roller skates. When he skates back into Honolulu in October, he's sure to make a big splash.
